Tag Archives: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

SECTION NEWS
The Advocacy/Policy Committee would like to invite you to participate in our first Advocacy Day, led in partnership with the Global Health Council. The day, scheduled for Thursday, November 3rd, 2011, immediately following the annual meeting in Washington, D.C., will be an opportunity for us to voice support for a continued focus on international health to our elected officials. With the intense Congressional pressure to cut the budget, our voices can make a real difference. As a participant during this exciting day, you will be provided with training materials on effective advocacy techniques to ensure your message is clearly heard. Even if you do not have advocacy experience, you need not hesitate to sign up because you will be teamed with others. Please consider joining your fellow International Health Section members on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 on Capitol Hill to advocate for a healthy globe. Interested parties should register here. Please note that registration will close on October 14th. Any questions should be directed to Peter Freeman, Advocacy/Policy Committee Chair, at pffreeman@gmail.com or 773.318.4842.

POLITICS AND POLICY

GOP Presidential hopeful Michelle Bachmann has been slammed by scientists, doctors and others for claiming that the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccine can cause mental retardation. An ethicist has now put up money behind his challenge to her claim.

A commitment by G20 nations to strengthen agricultural research in developing countries will help reduce food insecurity as long as it focuses on small farmers and their needs, officials and experts said at a G20-backed conference this week.

PROGRAMS

The Gates Foundation is often, not always fairly, criticized for being a techno-fix bunch. Melinda Gates heralds the value of community health workers in poor communities and their powerful, inexpensive ability to save lives.

The recently published results from two malaria vaccine trials appear to show that scientists are getting closer to developing a vaccine against the mosquito-borne illness.

Effective nursing is the backbone of a high quality health care delivery system. GHDonline’s nursing community will discuss how ongoing mentoring and training programs can enhance nursing in an expert panel discussion September 19-23.

After 2 years of analyzing the results of the largest AIDS vaccine clinical trial ever held, the so-called Thai prime-boost trial, and the only one so far to show some protection against HIV, researchers say they have discovered insights that could lead to an effective vaccine.

Reducing the incidence of malaria could also drastically reduce the number of deaths from bacterial infections among children in Africa, a study has found.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

Authorities worry that tropical mosquitoes found in San Gabriel Valley could spread disease if they gained a foothold in Southern California.

A human rights investigator for the United Nations says up to a quarter of the world’s trash from hospitals, clinics, labs, blood banks and mortuaries is hazardous and much more needs to be done to regulate it.

A report from UNICEF and the WHO shows the decrease in the rate of deaths for children under the age of five.

The WHO warns that thousands may die if multi-drug resistant and forms of tuberculosis continue to spread throughoutEurope.

One of the scientific advisers to the new blockbuster movie “Contagion” says the “risks are very real — and are increasing drastically… Our vulnerability to such diseases has been heightened by the growth in international travel and the globalization of food production.”

FOCUS – NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

Cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness and diabetes account for 63 percent of all global deaths, yet up to half could be prevented, according to a new report, Noncommunicable Diseases Country Profiles 2011, released Wednesday by the World Health Organization.

The WHO released a 207 page “global score card” on the prevention of chronic illness, one week ahead of the NCD summit at the UN.

Eli Lilly and Company has committed $30 million to the Global Health Initiative. The Lilly NCD Partnership will work to identify comprehensive, sustainable approaches to patient care. Initially it will concentrate on diabetes.

The Post-Graduate Fellowship (PGF) is an intensive training program that provides opportunities for self-directed research and interdisciplinary collaboration in health metrics. Strong candidates for this program have graduate-level training in quantitative methodology from one of the following areas: health policy, economics, mathematics, computer science, statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology, health services, demography, engineering, physics, medical sciences, or other related fields. The PGF program combines academic research, education and training, and professional work with progressive, on-the-job training and mentoring from an accomplished group of professors and researchers.

The purpose of the fellowship is to:

Enhance skills in conducting in-depth, methodological research on a variety of global health topics with mentoring from faculty and researchers who are the leading minds in their fields.

Advance knowledge of quantitative analytical methodologies and their applications to global health.

Develop understanding of the current global health landscape and its challenges.

Strengthen the ability to design and implement research projects and mentor junior researchers.

Prepare fellows for future positions in academia, national health agencies, international organizations, and foundations.

Fellows receive training through on-the-job research, methods workshops, access to University of Washington courses, and on-site lectures and seminars. Fellows contribute directly to IHME’s research agenda through their involvement in research teams, development of new methods, and managing and driving research projects to meet deliverables.

Eligibility and application information

In order to be considered for a Post-Graduate Fellowship, candidates must have the following:

PhD or MD.

Strong quantitative background.

Advanced research experience, especially with data analysis and statistical methods.

Applications are due on November 1. Candidate selection includes phone interviews and in-person interviews held at IHME. Admissions decisions are made by the end of February for fellows that will join IHME the following fall.

Applications for the IHME Post-Graduate Fellowship include:

A cover letter that includes your full contact information (address, phone number, and email); the name, affiliation, and full contact information of three references; and which of IHME’s research areas you are most interested in; how you learned about the program.

Your curriculum vitae or resume.

A personal statement describing your interest in IHME and your professional and academic interests and objectives. Personal statements should be between 750 and 1,000 words.

Three letters of recommendation.

The educational transcript from your highest degree attained. If your transcripts are not in English, please also provide a listing of all coursework with grade and credit hour information.

An English reprint of your most significant publication or research paper.

Proof of proficiency in English for candidates whose native language is not English.

How to submit your application
Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their application online starting August 1, 2011. If you are in a resource-poor setting or do not have internet access, applications can be mailed to:

Attention IH Section Members: Dr. Kaja Abbas, MPH student at the University of Rochester, is gauging interest in forming a working group focused on using system science to improve global health, similar to the intitiaves being promoted by NIH. Her interests are in conducting system science research on global health policy by modeling population and disease dynamics and economic evaluation of public health interventions and systems, with a focus on HIV and TB. Dr. Malcolm Bryant, our section chair, has encouraged the expansion of our section’s activities in areas of technical expertise, and Dr. Abbas is enthusiastic about a working group within the section that promotes system science methodologies for global health solutions. She welcomes your thoughts and suggestions at kaja [dot] abbas [at] gmail [dot] com.

Global Health Delivery online’s HIV prevention community is hosting a “virtual expert panel” March 7-11 to continue the dialogue around PrEP as a novel approach to prevention. Panelists from Uganda, South Africa and the United States will lead the online discussion, highlighting various barriers and opportunities to implementing PrEP in clinical settings; how to encourage long-term adherence; and what additional research questions need to be answered. Panelists include (1) Douglas Krakower, MD, a fellow in Infectious Diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School, (2)Andrew Mujugira, MBChB, MSc, the East Africa regional medical director for the Partners PrEP study, and (3) Vivek Naranbhai, PhD, who was involved in CAPRISA microbicide gel study. All GHDonline members can participate in this online discussion. You can sign up here if you are not currently a member.

POLICY

Paramount Chief Mpezeni of the Ngoni people in the Eastern Province of Zambia has urged his subjects to get circumcised in order to reduce the chances of spreading HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases in his land.

Due to uncertainty in past estimates, the Indian government has formed a 16-member expert group to determine the annual death rate caused by malaria in the country each year.

The breakdown of the air conditioning in the plenary hall of the Philippines’ House of Representatives stalled the heated debate of a controversial reproductive health bill. The bill is vehemently opposed by the Catholic Church and pro-life groups and has caused a stir in the largely Catholic country.

The World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, announced the launch of the Global Health Data Charter, a project designed to improve global health by leveraging the collection and management of data.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative, discusses why it is so difficult to eradicate polio. Meanwhile, former US President Jimmy Carter is leading his own campaign to make guinea worm the second disease (after smallpox) to be eradicated.

Prompted by Burma’s (Myanmar’s) transition to “civilian rule” after last November’s elections, the Global Fund has returned and is providing grants for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and TB programs.

DISEASES

The WHO has declared Nepal polio-free after no infections were reported during a six-month period, while a new outbreak is spiking in the DRC.

The massive flow of refugees fleeing violence in Libya has created a humanitarian crisis, as organizations struggle to provide for the basic needs of nearly 175,000 people who have crossed the border into Tunisia, Egypt, and Niger.